▼ "When the sender of a message comes from one culture and the receiver from another, the chances of accurately transmitting the message are low." - Nancy Adler, author of International Dimensions of Organizational Behavior There is no doubt that cultural differences can sometimes cause misunderstandings and miscommunication. This seems to be true in regards to intercultural relationships between Americans and the French, who seem to have a history of struggling to understand the subtle differences between each other’s culture and society. The question of how to understand and overcome cultural miscommunications is a complicated one, and does not have a straightforward answer. However, Adler’s quote seems overly pessimistic; although interpersonal relations across cultures can be complex and difficult, it is possible to begin investigating ways to overcome intercultural obstacles that may arise, even between Americans and the French. One of those ways is to explore and analyze cultural patterns, which, although they may not provide a straightforward answer, have the potential to help clarify the perplexities that may result from cultural miscommunication. The cultural patterns discussed in this paper do not comprehensively explain every part of French and American cultures. Instead, they focus on widespread social behaviors that are fostered, exhibited, and supported by the dominant middle classes in France and the United States. The study of intercultural and interpersonal relations is a broad topic that is constantly changing and demands a wide range of analyses. As a result, this paper is designed in a style that observes trends of cultural behavior in both France and the United States and discusses several principal areas of interpersonal and intercultural relations in order to shed light on cultural misunderstandings. The explanations in this paper are certainly not entirely definitive of every aspect of interpersonal relations across cultures, and likewise do not attempt to categorize cultural behaviors into basic, shallow assumptions. However, they do illustrate that cultural observations and descriptions can be a useful tool for beginning an examination of cultural misunderstandings. In addition, they demonstrate that French and Americans both have complicated and contradictory elements in their cultures, and that ultimately, above all, it is imperative to be open-minded in regards to interactions between different cultures. Advisors/Committee Members: Reynaud, Patricia.

▼ In November 2005, the world watched in shock as protests and riots broke out in the outskirts of many of France’s cities. Although many groups were involved in the riots, they were closely linked to France’s Muslim community. Many of young people involved in the riots, though not devout themselves, came from families that have emigrated from traditionally Muslim countries. This is just one is a long series of clashes between French Muslims and France’s majority. For example, in 2004 young Muslim women in France found themselves in the international spotlight when they insisted on their right to adopt the hijab and wear headscarves in public schools. While these conflicts have varied in terms of severity, they all set forth a similar set of questions, particularly ones that examine underlying issues in an attempt to stop violent confrontations. These questions are so broad and complicated that they necessitate a similarly wide-ranging approach. Therefore, this paper is not traditional in the sense that it does not have a single guiding thesis statement followed by a review of existing literature, a presentation of new evidence, and a conclusion. Rather, it is divided into three parts that address the issue of Muslim immigration from a variety of angles. Each of these sections has a slightly different focus with related conclusions; however when read as a whole, this paper will give the reader a broad but thorough understanding of the recent conflicts in France. The first part will consider the causes and effects of immigration from an interdisciplinary perspective, including geographic, historic, economic, political, and cultural standpoints. This section should provide the reader with a good background of the Muslim community in France and a sense of its current status. The second part is an in-depth examination of the 2005 riots. Certainly, these were the longest and most violent of the conflicts and thus warrant special consideration. The final section of the paper offers a straightforward model to understand the conflicts. The model is based on the ideas and comments of French university students interviewed by the author. Advisors/Committee Members: Adams, Ellen.

▼ History is not a single, homogenous account of the past. It is instead characterized by multiple, often conflicting narratives on which different social groups base their identities. By examining a series of Elie Kagan’s photographs of the October 17 massacre of Algerian demonstrators in Paris, this thesis looks to determine the role of these photographs in French and Algerian collective memory of the event. It also addresses issues surrounding compassion fatigue in the modern image culture and the effects of drawing photographic parallels between modern atrocity and the Holocaust. Advisors/Committee Members: McKinney, Mark.

▼ The contemporary studies of science and popular cultural trends are intricately linked in a two-way street, where each one influences and helps to shape the other. One distinct example of this is the phenomenon of phrenology during the July Monarchy in France. Here we can see many examples through popular art, educational reforms, government censorship, and penal system changes how the singular idea of a rigid neuroanatomy that defines character both affected many of the current institutions of the time and also found its own ideology based in contemporary thought and trends. Advisors/Committee Members: Strauss, Jonathan.

▼ Since the 1989 collapse of the Communist regimes of Eastern and Central Europe, the major threat to the peace and stability of the region has been the emergence, or rather, re-emergence of intrastate ethnic conflict. Tragically, such conflict lies at the heart of the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia into civil war, as well as the continued instability and violence of the North Caucasus. While ethnic warfare has been the most publicized element of minority politics in the former-Communist world, thankfully, it is the exception and not the rule in the transitions of multi-ethnic Eastern and Central European states to market democracy. Of the 27 states that currently cover the area of the former Communist countries of the former USSR and East and Central Europe, only five (Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, and Armenia) have populations in which ethnic/national minority groups do not comprise 10% or more of the total state population. Ethnic warfare, from Yugoslavia to Rwanda, is known for its brutal savagery, especially against civilians. Therefore, it is all the more reassuring that its incidence in the former Communist world has been relatively rare. Minority politics become a potentially destabilizing factor within a state when minorities claim rights that are politically sensitive for the states in which they reside to grant. This sensitivity generally goes beyond normal political reluctance or resistance to the demands of minorities. Minority demands, especially those concerned with the devolution of power or the granting of autonomy to minority-inhabited regions, often pose direct challenges to the national character of the states. Such demands are often interpreted as affronts to the very sovereignty and national pride of the state and its majority nationality. While democracy theoretically enshrines both majority rule and minority rights, the national character of a modern state is often seen as a non-negotiable issue. Because minorities are unlikely, without substantial demographic alterations, to ever gain an electoral majority within a state, their status in a democracy must be determined by negotiated compromise with the majority. Consequently, minorities often make demands that the majority feels it can never grant. The resulting deadlock often ends in both majority and minority abandoning a negotiated process in favor of a move to force a solution on the other. When such a breakdown occurs, democracy, built on the notion of negotiated compromise, is often discarded in favor of group cohesion, which, in turn, reinforces the ethnic hostility on both sides. Hence, to those interested in monitoring the progress of a country towards democracy, minority politics can serve as a coal miner's canary. If the issues surrounding the status of national/ethnic minorities are not being responsibly addressed in peaceful political forums, one may consider the canary dead, and the country still unready for the compromises called for by the democratic process. On the other hand, if the principle of minority participation on all levels of government, from local to national, has been enshrined and accepted as a legitimate element of the post-Communist political system, the minority issue need no longer cloud the air of the nascent democratic process. Advisors/Committee Members: Anderson, Sheldon.

▼ People experience cultural differences on many levels – a student leaving the United States for the first time, a government negotiating with another government that follows completely different standards and principles. Culture is an integral part of every day life and differences among cultures have been important contributing factors to how people perceive and react to others. In previous scholarship on this topic, culture has been explored through art, literature, foreign policy, etc. This paper takes a new approach to culture by examining cultural differences, as seen by doctors, between France and Algeria and Tunisia between the mid-nineteenth century and early twentieth.Three doctors were chosen for this purpose: Émile-Louis Bertherand, Lucien Bertholon, and Dorothée Chellier. The paper begins with a brief introduction to the definition of culture and the state of medicine during the period. It then examines other approaches to cultural difference, and then discusses the contributions of the doctors. Each of the doctors listed above contributes a different perspective on the Maghrebian region, and at the end of the exploration, we find that the doctors are an integral part of perpetuating French culture as well as bringing French culture to the indigenous populations. Advisors/Committee Members: Strauss, Jonathan.

▼ Nadja, published in 1927 by André Breton, the founder and self-proclaimed head of the surrealist movement, part of what is considered the “autobiographical quartet” of books by this author, all inspired by his relationships with various women. It is considered of the canonical works of the movement; however, it is somewhat problematic in that it differs in several key ways from both the other books he wrote from similar subject matter, and from Surrealism on the whole as described by Breton himself in the Manifestes du surréalisme in both style and treatment of its subject matter. This disparity leads one to question why exactly Breton wrote Nadja in the way that he did, and if it is possible to reconcile Nadja with the surrealist project. To answer this question, it was necessary to set out in the first part of the thesis the specific differences between Nadja and its counterparts, and to explore why these differences are significant, especially in their conformity with the overall philosophy of Surrealism. Then, from these differences, one can extract Breton's overall goal in writing the work – the construction of his own identity, not merely the telling of a story – and draw connections between this goal and the style in which Breton wrote. Finally, in showing that Surrealism existed not in a specific technique, but in a relationship of dual creativity of the author and the audience, and showing that this relationship is necessary for the accomplishment of Breton's goal in this book, Nadja is able to be reconciled with the surrealist project as a whole. Advisors/Committee Members: Strauss, Jonathan.

▼ The object of this study was to learn how a cross-cultural dialogue between the Hispanic/Latino communities in Hamilton, Ohio, and volunteers and workers in non-profit organizations could improve food distribution to low-income Hispanic/Latino families, making the process more culturally appropriate and helpful. In order to find out about the food preferences and perceived needs of these communities, I asked participants to respond to questionnaires in Spanish concerning the foods distributed by Serve City. The questionnaire also included a list of foods that I identified through research as typical of Mexican diets. The goal of the questionnaires was to reveal patterns in food preferences and to encourage communication and dialogue between Serve City and the Hispanic/Latino communities in Hamilton. I examine here the process of creating a dialogue between groups, and discuss how this process can be used to create more helpful, sensitive and understanding relationships among groups. Advisors/Committee Members: Bromberg, Shelly.